Cuomo Successor Says 'Far Too Premature' to Discuss His Pardon

NEW YORK (Sputnik ) - The successor to Andrew Cuomo, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, said on Wednesday that it was too early to talk about a pardon for the three-term New York governor who announced his resignation a day earlier amid multiple allegations that he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women, most of them staffers from his campaign.

“It is far too premature to even have those conversations,” Hochul told reporters in her first press briefing since Cuomo named her as his replacement on Tuesday, after saying he would officially step down in two weeks.

The resignation of the 63-year-old Cuomo came a week after New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that a months-long investigation into the governor's conduct had found that he had harassed at least 11 women, including a policewoman assigned to protect him and an executive assistant. She said the investigation also revealed that he and a senior aide attempted to retaliate against the victims.

US President Joe Biden, a long-time political ally of Cuomo, and the majority-Democrat New York State Assembly had earlier called on the embattled governor to step down. The New York state police also had confirmed that they were pursuing criminal investigations in relation to the many allegations against Cuomo.

The departing governor on Tuesday maintained that, in his opinion, he did “no wrong”, while suggesting that there had been “generational and cultural shifts” he wasn’t aware of, particularly as he considers himself to be a person who often expresses himself through touch. Allegations that he groped female colleagues, touched intimate parts such as breasts and buttocks, were “false”, he said.

Hochul distanced herself on Wednesday from any discussion related to ongoing investigations or actions against Cuomo, saying “it's very clear that the governor and I have not been close, physically or otherwise”.